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How does the decision in the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) in Carter v. Canada (Attorney General) (“Carter”) impact on the religious Jewish doctor? Will this landmark decision bring into conflict these doctors’ freedom of conscience and religion with their professional obligations? The Carter case sets aside federal criminal laws as they relate to physician assisted suicide. It stands for the proposition that individuals who are suffering unbearably have a constitutional right to a physician-assisted suicide. Canada now joins only eight other countries in the world that have decriminalized physician-assisted suicide in recent years. This is a fundamental change in the law.

Who has a right to get a copy of the last will and testament? Or the right to see the estate’s accounting records? What about if the executors have sat on their hands and not done anything – who can ask the court to make those executors apply for probate? The answer to this riddle is a question: who appears to have a financial interest in the estate?

Clients are sometimes understandably frustrated when the cost of defending a bogus claim is greater than settling. I want to share a story about one case where an aggressively creative motion addressed this concern.

In this unreported case, the Applicant filed a Notice of Objection and commenced proceedings seeking support under Part V of the Succession Law Reform Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. S.26. The Deceased was not biologically related to the Applicant and was not receiving any financial or emotional support prior to the testator’s demise.

This cheat sheet is intended as a quick reference guide for estate litigators dealing with limitation periods. For a comprehensive review of this topic I refer the reader to articles written by senior members of the bar I have found very useful which I believe are worthwhile to review.

Courts use the equitable remedy of Rectification to fix certain errors in a Will. Exactly what evidence will be considered and the types of mistakes fixed gives rise to uncertainty and litigation. The author reviews some of these issues and recent case law on the topic.